Amelia Tonetti
Amelia Carmen Tonetti is a main character in All Fall Down, ''she is known for being the daughter of a Brazilian mafia member, who has recently lost her family and now spends her time lost in dreams. She was born and raised for most of her life in Rio de Janeiro, standing at 5"5 in height, she was born on the 7th of December, 1991. Amelia is aged at 20 throughout the duration of the story. 'Background' Amelia was born in the famous city of Rio in Brazil to a Brazilian father and English mother. She was homeschooled for her entire life, and is fluent in both Portuguese and English, but strangely feels that English is her easier language as it is spoken at home more frequently. She had a well off life due to her father’s job, which she thought was in the shipping industry, but in reality he works with the mafia. Amelia was kept in the dark about many aspects in her parents’ lives, and so had a fairly naive childhood of happiness. She wasn’t allowed many freedoms though, having to remain at home, or go out with someone to guard her under the guise of escorting. When she was 15 years old, her father was sent to America to work, and relocated his family with him. The Tonetti family settled into New York, but Amelia and Paulo continued to be homeschooled, and held even less freedom as her father didn’t know who he could trust. Because Amelia never knew the real reason he took such an interest in her safety, she often felt stifled and would frequently sneak out anyway. It was after one of those times that she realised what her father was, when she was apprehended by whoever it was he had set to watch her, as they were in more danger. He had been sent to America to keep an eye on an organisation that was taking an interest in dreams, and how one’s subconscious played a part in their waking mind. However, things had started to shift beyond his control, and the organisation now knew that they were being watched, and knew that her father’s ‘business’ would try to undermine them. Gustavo knew that his family would be in danger, but he had very little time to work with. He had two tickets to get out within the hour, and without a question he and Naomi agreed to send their children to wherever the tickets were set to take them. Amelia had to leave with Paolo without further explanation, and knew that it would be the last time she’d see her parents. The tickets took her to Mombase, Kenya, and that was all she had to go on. After that, she had no money, no friends in the area, and no one who she could call without bringing her father’s enemies to them. She had to find a way to support her brother, but Paolo was never a strong boy, and there was nothing she could do to save him as he sickened. She barely managed to scrape together money enough to feed him, and ignored her own wellbeing, but her efforts were for naught, he died 6 weeks after their arrival. After his death, Amelia didn’t quite hit suicide level, but she lost the will to live in the real world. She heard about Yusuf through a chain of underworld knowledge, and sought him out. While she didn’t really have money to pay him, he took pity on her, but also knew that the people he worked with would need another person to test their theory on after their most promising subject was lost. Amelia begins to spend day after day dreaming, each time her will to wake up slips further and further away. 'Appearance' Amelia looks a couple years younger than her real age, a fact that annoys her. She has an olive toned complexion from her half Brazilian ethnicity, and dark brown hair that falls in layers to just past her shoulders. Her almond shaped eyes are a hazel mixture of deep green ringed with brown. 'Personality' Amelia has a natural strength in her that she inherited from both her parents, but after so many blows, that armour has a lot of cracks in it. She’s become an introverted shadow of herself, smiles and laughter no longer come with ease. When she was younger, she was very lively, and slowly starts to get better over time. But she feels that by acting happy, she’s somehow betraying the family she’s lost. She bears a lot of guilt for what happened, feeling that if she hadn’t been to rebellious in America, she might have avoided this happening to her parents. And she thinks she should have taken better care of Paulo. 'Ambitions' She was doing a correspondence university course with UCA in political science and philosophy. She doesn’t have a clear job idea, she’s only studying those things because they interest her, she likes the abstract. 'Strengths' Underneath her sadness, Amelia is still the same person she was before. She likes puzzles, and is good at solving them, she can apply her mind to a situation and determine what the logical course should be. Amelia has a knack for feeling if someone is lying, her high scrutiny of people is a good skill that her father made her learn. 'Weaknesses' She puts her problems down until she’s in overload, and at that point, she just breaks away from them. She takes guilt for things that she had nothing to do with, and she can’t let go of things. She has volatile emotions that she doesn’t control. 'Habits' When she’s angry or asleep, she starts speaking in Portuguese. She’ll analyse people within moments of meeting them, a habit picked from her father. And she likes to have something in her hands to fiddle with. 'Totem' Her mother gave her an oval piece of glass, filled with multicoloured swirls, flat on one side, and rounded on the other. If you spin it one way, it will go for a few turns, but then stop and begin to spin the other way. She knows she’s in a dream when it keeps spinning that way. 'Relationships' 'Family' 'Gustavo Tonetti' Gustavo got mixed up in the mafia from a young age, and kept on going with it because he knew the consequences for backing out. He loves his family though, and if his work were to ever threaten them, he’d pick them in any circumstance. He feels a particular connection to his daughter, and made sure that she knew all manner of skills that would make her less likely to fall into human traps when she was older. He knew the risks he was running when he moved his family to America as he chased up a deal, but he thought it would be alright. Amelia would often go to her father about anything, feeling that he understood her a little better than her mother did. In many situations she faces, she often hears ghost whisperings from him in her mind, giving her advice or reprimanding. 'Naomi Tonetti' She met Gustavo when she was in Rio for Carnival one year, and she never went home to England. She knows about her husband’s dealings, but turns a blind eye to it out of her love for him. The only times she disagrees with her husband, are when she feels her children might be endangered. She’s one of a handful of people who Gustavo allows to ever speak back to him. Amelia might go to her father more for advice and talks, but if she just needs quiet comfort she’ll go to Naomi. Naomi has more of a soft spot for her son, Paulo, as he was the physically weaker child from the moment he was born. So she needs to look out for him a lot more. 'Paolo Tonetti' Amelia loves her little brother dearly, but would at times get annoyed at how much care he needed (when she was a in selfish teen mode), but that was never resentment. He is quite a bit younger than her (b. 2000), and he was only six when the family moved to America. He loves it there, and Amelia used this to her advantage, frequently taking him out to see the city. He looked up to her a lot, somewhat idolising her, and Amelia’s happy to make time for him almost always. He was born with very poor health, and couldn’t over exert himself or stand as long a period of time as normal people could without sustenance, or else he would weaken dramatically. He was 11 years old when he and Amelia had to run, and he was too weak to survive in Kenya with the conditions they had to live in. His death was the final blow to her. 'Friends' 'Eames' Eames is by nature a very teasing person, and frequently pokes fun at her to try get her out of her shell. She is annoyed by this at first, snapping back, but eventually he is good at actually getting her to lighten up. He teases Arthur mercilessly about Amelia, often when she’s within earshot, making him the anger target for the both of them, which he feels just proves his point. 'Ariadne' Closest to her in age, Ariadne is the one who takes the most subtle inquiries to asking her what’s wrong, and is the first person that Amelia talks to about it all. Ariadne and her get along quite well, and she frequently tells the guys off if she feels that they’re being too harsh on her, especially Arthur. Ariadne is conflicted about the mission, knowing that it is possible, but unsure about whether she should convince Amelia to live, or give Alice a way to. 'Alice Pannon' Alice was the test subject that was lots by the organisation that Amelia’s father was becoming entangled with. Amelia didn’t know that she was close to being enticed into the very same thing. When she finds out about Alice, and the possibility of saving her, Amelia immediately volunteers. She spends a lot of time in Robert’s mind to get to know Alice better and make it easier when they pulled off the experiment. The two of them become good friends, both kind of in opposite situations. 'Love Interest' 'Arthur' Arthur found her when he was visiting Yusuf to get some more sedatives, he felt that it was just wrong for someone so young to be wasting their life like that. He got her a Green Card for America, and moved her back there as soon as she woke up. He didn’t really have many plans for after though, and Amelia was not happy to be tossed back into the real world. They had a very argumentative relationship to start with, because he’s constantly trying to get her to see life in the real world, while she wants to keep on dreaming. A constant frustration for Arthur, is not only how she refuses to listen to him, but his growing feelings for her; which Eames ''loves to point out loudly when she’s around. He is furiously against her giving up her body to Alice’s mind, trying to convince her every step of the way, but finding it hard to tell her that the reason why is because he cares for her.